SPOKANE, Wash. — The neighborhood around Cannon Hill Park is close to becoming a historic district after years of community effort and resident approval.
Residents already approved the designation over the summer, with 70% of households voting in favor of making Cannon Hill Park a historic district.
If the neighborhood receives historic district status, the Spokane Historic Preservation Commission would review any changes homeowners want to make to the front of their homes facing the street.
“We call it, in historic preservation-speak, ‘historic character-defining features of the homes,'” said Megan Duvall, historic preservation officer for the city of Spokane. “So, that’s what we would be looking at, retaining those things. If you have a front porch, you probably wouldn’t be allowed to enclose that front porch.”
The designation process has taken years of work, and the neighborhood is now in the final steps of making the historic status official.
“On one hand, we love the neighborhood. We love the nostalgia of the old homes and we want to keep them that way,” said David Heath, who has lived in Cannon Hill for 30 years. “On the other hand, I’m against ‘not in my backyard.’ I felt that this was a little bit of an overreach.”
Heath believes the historic district guidelines are too restrictive for the neighborhood.
With resident approval already secured through the summer vote, the final decision rests with the Mayor and Spokane City Council. If approved, Cannon Hill Park could receive the historic district designation by the end of the year.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
